House of Commons Sessional Diary

The Sessional Diary sets out the amount of time spent on different items of business on each Parliamentary day in the House of Commons Chamber and in Westminster Hall. The diary is produced by the Journal Office in the House of Commons.

The Sessional diaries for the Chamber and for Westminster Hall are accompanied by a separate analysis section which groups entries under each type of business together, providing information about how much time has been spent over the Parliamentary Session on different categories of business.

The Sessional Diary also does not record time spent on business in General Committees and Select Committees and may not therefore account for all the Parliamentary time spent on any given subject.

Timings in Sessional Diary

Timings are taken from the Votes and Proceedings and from Hansard. Where the timing of a particular event is not recorded in Hansard, estimates are made on the basis that a column of Hansard covers about 3 minutes. The smallest unit of time recorded is 1 minute, which may result in slight inaccuracies where things take less than 60 seconds.

It is important to note that items which go through without any debate and so do not take any time are not recorded in the diary. Complete information about the business of the House on each sitting day is given in the Votes and Proceedings.